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by Dean Petersdeanpeters/product-manager-skills7.1k stars
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Structure a spoken PM product-sense answer with assumptions, segmentation, pain-point prioritization, and MVP tradeoffs. Use when practicing design, improve, or build-next interview questions.

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Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/deanpeters/product-manager-skills/product-sense-interview-answer

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template.md

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Product Sense Interview Answer Template

Use this as a fill-in scaffold for product design, product improvement, or "what would you build next?" interview questions.

Question: [Paste the prompt]

1. Clarify

Opening line: "Before I dive in, I want to clarify the scope so I solve the right problem."

  • Clarifier 1: [Question]
    • Assumption if unanswered: [Assumption]
  • Clarifier 2: [Question]
    • Assumption if unanswered: [Assumption]

If no company is named:

  • Startup assumption: "Since no specific company was mentioned, I'll assume we're a startup exploring this space."

2. Rationale

Market

  • Big market / strategic importance: [Why this space matters]
  • Why important: [Why users or society care]
  • Why now: [What changed recently]

Company Fit

Skip this subsection if no company is named.

  • Mission fit: [Why this supports the company mission]
  • Business objective: [Revenue, retention, growth, efficiency, etc.]
  • Competitive landscape: [Who else plays here]
  • Market gap: [What current solutions miss]
  • Unique strength: [Why this company can win]

One-Line Thesis

  • [One sentence that sets up the rest of the answer]

3. Product Goal

  • Goal: Help [user] [achieve outcome], so that [broader impact].
  • Success looks like: [Observable user outcome]

4. Segmentation

Ecosystem Players

  • [Player 1]
  • [Player 2]
  • [Player 3]
  • [Player 4]
  • [Player 5]

Chosen Player

  • Player: [Who you will focus on]
  • Reach: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]
  • Impact: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]
  • Strategic fit: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

Primary Dimension

  • Dimension name: [What meaningfully changes needs]

  • [Segment A]

  • [Segment B]

  • [Segment C]

  • Chosen segment: [Who]

  • Reach: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

  • Impact: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

  • Strategic fit: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

Secondary Dimension

  • Dimension name: [What else changes needs]

  • [Segment A]

  • [Segment B]

  • [Segment C]

  • Chosen segment: [Who]

  • Reach: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

  • Impact: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

  • Strategic fit: [High / Medium / Low] - [Why]

Persona

  • [Who they are, in one sentence]
  • [What they care about, in one sentence]

5. Pain Points

Journey Stages

  • [Stage 1]
  • [Stage 2]
  • [Stage 3]
  • [Stage 4]
  • [Optional Stage 5]

Pain Points

  • [Pain point 1]
  • [Pain point 2]
  • [Pain point 3]
  • [Pain point 4]
  • [Pain point 5]
  • [Pain point 6]
  • [Pain point 7]
  • [Pain point 8]
  • [Pain point 9]
  • [Pain point 10]

Top Pain Point

  • Top pain point: [One pain to prioritize]
  • Frequency: [How often users hit it]
  • Severity: [How badly it blocks the job, how underserved it is, and emotional cost]

6. Solution

Solution Options

  • Option 1: [One sentence]
  • Option 2: [One sentence]
  • Option 3: [One sentence]

Comparison

  • Option 1: [High / Medium / Low] user impact - [Why]. [High / Medium / Low] effort - [Why].
  • Option 2: [High / Medium / Low] user impact - [Why]. [High / Medium / Low] effort - [Why].
  • Option 3: [High / Medium / Low] user impact - [Why]. [High / Medium / Low] effort - [Why].

MVP

  • Winner: [Chosen first bet]
  • Core features:
    • [Feature 1]
    • [Feature 2]
    • [Feature 3]
  • v1 exclusions:
    • [Exclusion 1]
    • [Exclusion 2]

Risks and Mitigations

  • Risk: [Name it]. Mitigation: [Specific action].
  • Risk: [Name it]. Mitigation: [Specific action].

Closing Line

"To summarize: I'd focus on [target segment], specifically around the pain of [top pain point], and build [MVP] as the first bet."

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

No alerts17d4 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub17d

    The skill is a text-based coaching framework designed to help users prepare for product management interviews. It provides a structural spine and templates for organizing spoken answers. Analysis confirms no malicious code, network calls, or security vulnerabilities are present.

  • Socket17d

    No alerts

  • Snyk17d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

  • ZeroLeaks5mo

    Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed

Provenance

Signed by skilld at 6a4fbf2. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub last month.

Activeupdated 3 months ago

Capability

argument-hint
[interview prompt]
type
component
theme
career-leadership
Other metadata
intent
Coach PM candidates through open-ended product-sense interviews using a repeatable six-part answer spine: clarify, rationale, goal, segmentation, pain points, and solution choice. Use this to practice product design and product improvement questions, avoid solution-first answers, and produce responses that sound thoughtful out loud rather than over-scripted on the page.
best_for
[
  "Practicing product design and product improvement interview questions",
  "Coaching candidates who jump to solutions too quickly",
  "Turning messy ideation into a crisp spoken interview answer"
]
scenarios
[
  "How would you improve YouTube?",
  "Design a product for travelers with flight anxiety",
  "What would you build next for DoorDash?"
]
estimated_time
20-30 min

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